January 17, 2006

CHICAGO – The 1997 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) established "In the City for Good" (ICG), a 10-year initiative to transform lives, congregations and communities in urban settings across the United States and Caribbean. Five years into the initiative, the ELCA Division for Outreach's urban team reviewed its progress and decided some changes were needed that are now in place.

"We used to enter into urban ministry assuming it was a remedial setting and work from weakness trying to create strength," said the Rev. David D. Daubert, executive for renewal of congregations, ELCA Evangelical Outreach and Congregational Mission. "We're trying to go to the healthy congregations now and use them as multiplication points," he said.

"We can't really expect city churches and city neighborhoods to be going through transformation if we don't go through transformation ourselves," Daubert said. "It's exciting that we belong to an organization that's willing to evaluate, learn and go through transformation itself not just ask others to do that while we watch and throw money at the system," he said.

ICG called for new education programs for urban lay leaders, culturally relevant worship opportunities, support for the training and salaries of urban pastors, cooperation with community groups in solving neighborhood problems, and benchmarks against which congregations could assess their strengths and weaknesses.

The initiative began with $1 million from Lutheran Brotherhood (now Thrivent Financial for Lutherans) and funds from the Division for Outreach budget to distribute during the decade to help congregations adapt to and transform their neighborhoods. Much of the money was granted as seed money to help congregations start new urban programs.

The annual grant process attracted struggling congregations trying to start programs that might help them stay alive, Daubert said. "When the money ran out, they stopped doing it, and the unhealthy church stayed unhealthy. So we had a lot of starts and stops," he said.

"We found that a very small number of those grants had lasting impact," Daubert said. "If (the new program) was integral to the ministry of the congregation, it sustained itself afterward; and the grant was helpful," he said.

The ELCA's urban team hosted an Urban Summit in 2003 to help review the initiative's progress. It became clear that the church needed "to spend less time trying to fix unhealthy places and focus on using healthy urban congregations as a base for raising up effective urban leaders, planting and renewing congregations, and networking," Daubert said.

With the initial funding spent on grants, Daubert said money remaining for the initiative was placed in an endowment that will help cover certain costs associated with consultations, Urban Summits, the Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education (SCUPE) and Summer Urban Ministry Institutes (SUMI).

The urban team continues to meet with leaders in city churches, review the congregations' ministries firsthand, and offer reports and recommendations for the leaders to consider. The Rev. Jerrett L. Hansen, Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, Huntingdon Valley, Pa., leads the urban team.

Urban Summit, SCUPE Congress, SUMI Planned

Leaders from several ELCA congregations thriving in urban settings were invited to the next Urban Summit, Feb. 16-17 in Fort Worth, Texas. Daubert described the summit as "a think tank" that will pool the church's knowledge of urban ministry and help develop a strategy beyond the ICG initiative.

SCUPE will host a 2006 Congress on Urban Ministry here March 21-24, with the ELCA as a sponsor active in its planning. The ecumenical event draws hundreds of urban church leaders from across the United States.

The ELCA is working with SCUPE to host the church's third SUMI here June 15-19, training teams of ELCA pastors and lay leaders from select urban congregations. The institute includes field trips to urban churches in the Chicago area. Each team develops a six-month plan to implement when it returns to its home congregation.

The ICG initiative also benefits the ELCA's Transformational Ministry Conference that provides training similar to that of the SUMI but for leaders from congregations in all settings, not just urban.

When the 10-year initiative ends in 2007, Daubert said these activities will serve as the groundwork for future generations of urban ministry. "If we're learning anything it's that this is long-haul stuff," he said.

"We need to find people who have good gifts for ministry and invest in them so those gifts get used wisely, and, when that happens, God always rejoices and blesses that kind of thing with things we never expected," Daubert said. "God doesn't work through programs near as often as God works through people."

Information about urban ministry and the "In the City for Good" initiative is at http://www.ELCA.org/outreach/urban/ on the ELCA Web site.

An audio report on this story is available in MP3 format for streaming: http://media.ELCA.org/ramgen/audionews/060106.mp3 or for download: http://media.ELCA.org/audionews/060106.mp3.

ELCA News Service